prop and that’s about it.
Did you enjoy being pushed out of your comfort zone, and how difficult was it to cook in the GBM kitchen alongside other chefs?
Yeah, I enjoyed the challenge and obviously I was cooking against my old boss, Phil Carmichael which was brilliant! But again, I hadn’t been able to spend much time developing my dishes and I felt I was going into it a little bit blind. That really pushed me though, but it didn’t exactly help with the nerves! It was all just good fun to be honest, especially being back in the kitchen with Phil. It was good to see him again and to see him doing so well.
Best and worst part of being on GBM?
Again the only bad point for me was that I hadn’t been able to refine my dishes, so I was worried about looking daft. The best art was probably my veteran judge, having a Michelin star chef judge my food was brilliant.
If you were scoring your dishes would you agree with what your judge said or not? If not why not?
No, definitely not. I would have scored myself much lower than he did. I’d have given my starter a five, and my dessert a two. He was far more complimentary than I would have been. I’m really self-critical.
How nerve-wracking was it to cook for your peers?
To be honest, you don’t really have time to get nervous on the day and once the filming starts it goes pretty quickly. The week before was the nerve-wracking one with everything that had gone on in the run up. I had everything worked out in my head but you want to be able to try things out and make those initial mistakes or tweaks off camera! So that was the nervy bit. Once you’re there it goes so fast, you’re in and out of the kitchen, the filming’s done and it’s all over.
